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February 24, 2013

Great things are done when men
and mountains meet. This is not done by
jostling in the street.

(William Blake)

I read, when in
my twenties, most of William Blake’s writings from cover to cover and spent
many a quiet moment meditating my way through his evocative paintings. Needless
to say, Blake is not the easiest poet and painter to interpret, so I took the
time to read and correspond with some of the leading Blake scholars. Allen
Ginsberg sent me a copy of his booklet, Your
Reason and Blake’s System (1988). Northrop Frye, author of Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake (1947), and I corresponded. I enjoyed many a
letter from Kathleen Raine who wrote Blake
and Antiquity (1963). My interest in Thomas Merton was largely initiated by
the MA he wrote on Blake in 1939 called Nature
and Art in William Blake: An Essay in Interpretation (1939). I was also,
when doing my PHD at McMaster in the 1980s, delighted to attend the many
lectures by E. P. Thompson whose book, Witness
Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law (1993) is a must read
keeper.

February 22, 2013

More than once I’ve been referred to as amodern-day Troubadour. I’ve always liked this designation because it has a romantic, archaic ring to it that sounds just a little bit more flattering than singer/songwriter, naturally appealing to my vanity. But it once occurred to me that I wasn’t entirely sure of its meaning and thought I should look it up.

Not surprisingly, I discovered the word to have various historical uses and nuances. But the definition that intrigued me most, and which I recognize as fairly accurate of my own sense of calling and vocation is this:

Troubadour:a lyric poet sent by one (usually of the King’s court)with a message of chaste love to another.

Well… there you go. Just two weeks ago (on Valentines Day) I posted a song and message of chaste love in a blog. In it, I celebrated thirty years of marriage to my wife Nanci; a union that has resulted in three beloved (now adult) children, their own unions to beloved others, two grandchildren, and a deeply meaningful, long-term foster relationship with a young woman and her beautiful children who, in fact, are coming over for dinner tonight. I can’t wait.

Christians call Jesus the “Prince of Peace.” But what does that mean? Is it just a Christmas card cliché? Does it merely mean some peace of mind in an anxiety-ridden world? Or might it mean something more substantial? Perhaps much more substantial. Might it mean that Jesus offers the world an alternative arrangement that could best be described as peace? This is what I have come to believe. Jesus is the savior of the world in a real, wonderful, and urgent way — the Prince of Peace who can lead humanity out of the madness of arranging our world around power, violence and war.

I have my own story of how I moved beyond a misguided allegiance to that tired paradigm of violence by discovering the radical alternative of the gospel of peace. This was not an easy move, but it was worth it. And it’s a story worth telling.

I hold to a hopeful conviction that ultimately everyone will be united with God through the grace of Christ. As I visit with people about this conviction (known as “Christian universalism”), inevitably folks will respond by saying, “Oh, so you think everyone goes to heaven.” In some sense, yes, I do believe that “everyone goes to heaven,” but I am not entirely happy with describing my belief in universal salvation in that way. Because of the popular idea of heaven that many entertain, it can be very misleading for me to say it like that.

February 19, 2013

With the Richter-scale crack in Roman Catholicism caused by Benedict XVI's dramatic resignation it seems an apt moment to take another look at priestly celibacy. If the retiring pope seeks to make way for a more energetic successor, one able to confront the "questions of deep concern to the life of faith", issues of sexuality, gender, and relationship in general must necessarily be front and center. The RCC's response in all these areas is existentially conditioned by its insistence on celibacy for ordained ministers.

Jesus states clearly that celibacy is a gift and an option "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 19:10). In other words it's a possible choice to be made by some for whom the coming of God into the world is an overriding personal event and meaning. There is nothing about a "vow of celibacy" in his statement. Simply a decision for something--from one point of view quite brutal ("making oneself a eunuch," i.e. desexualized)--because another, transcending relationship has completely overwhelmed and replaced this vital aspect of human existence.

Wolterstorff’s latest book, Justice in love, is written in his usual philosophically logical
style. This book follows his recent
book, Justice: Rights and Wrongs; he
now explores and philosophically parses the concept of agapic love as it
relates to justice. At times I thought he was splitting hairs of moral
philosophy, but then I would have an “aha” moment and discover a significant
insight. The book is certainly worth the time of reading and pondering over. He
is challenging at times, and quite courageous in critiquing lex talionis, and the popular use of Anselm’s view of atonement influenced by that code of
reciprocity (especially the negative, the lex,
side of returning evil for evil), rejecting also the attendant necessity of
retribution and its conclusions about justice and forgiveness. As if that Challenge is not enough, he
reframes the orthodox Calvinist doctrine of election, and makes helpful distinctions
upon a thorough discussion of the meaning of justification as found in St.
Paul’s letter to the Romans. He, like me, comes from the reformed (CRC)
tradition, and I recommend this book for wide reading and dialogue to enrich
and broaden dialogue on justice. Justice
talk in Christian circles is common, but is often partially informed and parochially
understood; and, we need to develop capacities to think outside the box in our dialogue
regarding justice and love issues in our churches, society, and our personal
lives to be congruent in our calling as Christ followers. In public, pluralist,
settings, there are many opportunities to act as salt and light that can help
to build a better world rather than add to its burden of judgment, exclusion,
and violence.

It may seem redundant to follow up Robert Williams' fine review of Keepers of the Flame (below), but having recently completed three years of Grantean studies under Dart's supervision, I would like to voice my own response while the experience is still fresh.

In this book, we get the sort of 'best-of' material that has put Ron Dart at the forefront of Red Toryism in Canada. With Williams, I see Ron standing among the ranks of the 'Keepers of the Flame' discussed in this book. The capacity to scan the landscape from 30,000 feet enables him to see very broad patterns and connections, as well as significant discontinuities and contrasts. I would argue that this eagle-eye perspective makes Dart one of Red Toryism's premier analytical historians today, taking up the torch from giants like William Christian.

February 13, 2013

Lent is a time for us to revisit, recall, retell, relive Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and especially his suffering and death. I would like to share with you the scripture reading guide I’ll be following during Lent. Read it slow and in a contemplative manner; try to fall into the story. Be there with Jesus. I pray this Lenten journey through the second half of the Gospel story will help you to encounter Jesus in fresh new ways.

(As you will notice the Sunday readings depart from the narrative course to recall the resurrection.)

BZ

(The artwork is The Procession to Calvary by Pieter Brueghel The Younger)

February 12, 2013

Praise for the MasterYou, the Storyteller!You, the Poet!Great crafter of beauty and intrigue and the framing of images before the mind's eye of the awake and the alive, or the awakening and the enlivening or the asleep and the near dead.You call us up, out, and through to images, to the fiery, detailed grandeurof the story,the words—jewels of your love.The covenants—Master,you are good,over and throughit all.You, the Creator of Creation!You, the Creator of Context and Co-Creation, and of Co-CreatorsYou, the Envisioner of Imagination: l'histoire et de poésie-- explicit and tacit lived and experienced--we move within the pages of your verse, rest within the gulleys of your impasto on the yet-dried canvas in your studio, dance to the movement of your strings played by the heavenly spheres, tread with fear within your language, yours words, and your language beyond language,to find we are undone and remade by the play of it all the staging and lights (alongside its frightful reality).We are living,awed by your mastery.

February 05, 2013

The term, “hegemony” is used in at least two
main ways: 1) as a more or less neutral term describing a geo-political state
of affairs and 2) as a more loaded term, referring to the domination of
democratic-capitalism in the twentieth-century. This latter way is associated
with neo-Marxism and especially Antonio Gramsci who used the concept of
“cultural hegemony” to explore the wide-spread power and influence of
democratic-capitalism. From a geo-political stance, hegemony is the particular
hold that one group of people have on the surrounding territory. Hegemony is
said to exist when there is a relatively stable political centre to administer and
protect the flow of capital within a defined territory.

Almost all hegemonies involve a hierarchy with
those who make up the political centre receiving the most benefit from the
hegemony. That is most of the capital flows into the centre. Despite this
inequality, hegemonies tend to be relatively stable, at least for a time. The
existence of hegemony is easier to understand when we begin with the household,
which in most of history has existed as a mini-hegemony.

February 04, 2013

It has never not been wartime.They have always been dying andgrieving—deep,rib-cage-gasps of lament.And I have been idle at my computer,checking my Facebook account forthe latest distraction from the terror,disease,death,orphans,women and children trafficked,the cruel and nearly pitied lives.Hands outstretched to my closeddriver’s side window.The locked door.I cannot breathe this kind of air for long.

February 03, 2013

1. The Reformed-Evangelical Sanhedrin

It is quite
impossible to reduce the reformed and evangelical traditions to a homogenous
grouping, but there are dominant tendencies within such a family that have shaped and defined
the tradition. It is these dominant tendencies, defended by the leaders (Sanhedrin)
of such a clan, that must be noted and questioned---The Sanhedrin, in short,
have reduced and constricted the catholic vision to the smallest circle turns,
then questioned the Orthodoxy of those who differ with them. Such a tendency is
a form of single vision slumber and those who are yearning and questing for a
fuller notion of the faith journey must needs wake from such sleep. What are
the pills taken that lead to such a slumber and what will sleepers see once
they awake? Let me, all too briefly, bring to the table five pills often taken
that once digested lead to single vision sleep.